At odds over Malmesbury store’s plans
2:00pm Friday 10th February 2012 in News By Victoria Ashford
Parish councillors have voted in opposition to their neighbours by supporting the 50,000sq ft plan for a Sainsbury’s supermarket.
St Paul Malmesbury With-out Parish Council has written to Wiltshire Council’s planning authority voicing their support just a week after Malmesbury Town Council voted in opposition to the food giant’s proposed move to the town’s garden centre site.
“I think that having a cheaper outlook for goods and food, and so on, will be to the great benefit of the people of Malmesbury,” said parish council chairman Ian Henderson.
“We are a rural area and mostly dependent on our cars, so the idea that we would have better value fuel around here would be in the everyone’s best interests. “We are very interested in the creation of new jobs – if there are an extra 200 jobs in this area then all the better.”
The parish council held a meeting in January for parishioners to speak to representatives from Sains-bury’s about their concerns.
As well as the retail impact, another major concern was the impact of increased traffic and a roundabout outside residents’ houses.
Coun Henderson said: “For 20 years we have wanted a roundabout there and now we will have one potentially.
“The silent majority, we feel, are for it.“ Coun Roger Budgen, who chairs the residents’ association which is against the proposal, was one of the two councillors who voted in opposition to the store.
“I believe the reasons that were given did not relate to the local and national planning policy,” he said.
“The reasons given were extremely superficial and did not take into account the bigger picture.
“The public views of the previous meeting were not taken into account.
“A roundabout would certainly help matters but not ‘that’ roundabout. It’s substandard; it’s too small.”
Coun Charlotte Law, who is a first-time buyer, feels the store will benefit low- income families and single parents.
“I couldn’t find fault with the plans,” she said. “The only thing I could find is the argument about the High Street, but I think it has been blown out of proportion a bit.
“I don’t want to see the town centre go, but we all had trouble seeing how it will be affected in a huge way.”
